A statewide
collaborative commission of judges, lawyers, and civic leaders has come out
against AB1208.

The bill, which
was introduced by last year, must pass the Assembly by Jan. 31 or else it dies
for this year under legislative rules. Assemblyman Charles Calderon,
D-Industry, sponsored the measure, which proposes increasing administrative and
financial autonomy for trial courts.

Third District
Court of Appeal Justice Ronald Robie and Los Angeles attorney Joanne Caruso,
who are chair and vice-chair of the California Commission on Access to Justice,
sent a letter to Calderon objecting to the passage of his bill on Thursday in
which they asserted, “AB1208 will have the unintended effect of reducing access
to the courts for the most vulnerable populations in the state that has been
shaped in recent years by the Judicial Council.”

They praised the
“visionary leadership” of the council for “creating a true single statewide
branch of government,” which has allowed “many advances in the past 15 years
improving access to our judicial system for some of California’s most
vulnerable residents.”

Robie, a former
Judicial Council member, and Caruso wrote that the commission “is concerned
about returning to the times when a lack of access to the courts was common, as
was true before trial court unification and state trial court funding were
established.”

In particular,
they said they feared AB1208 could undermine funding for self-help centers and
services for litigants with limited English proficiency, the uniformity of
local rules and procedures, and support for developing statewide “best
practices.”

Local courts
“dealing with many other legitimate demands on scarce resources,” and with the
autonomy to make “difficult fiscal, programmatic and administrative decisions,”
could decide to cut programs assisting the poor and underrepresented as a
cost-savings measure, Robie and Caruso warned, since these “are easy targets in
such an environment….”

Additional
opposition to AB1208 came last week from the presiding judges from 42 of
California’s 58 trial courts, who joined the chairman of the Trial Court
Presiding Judge Advisory Committee in signing a letter against the proposed
measure.

Support for
Calderon’s legislation continues to come from the Alliance of California Judges,
which on Friday solicited members to “redouble your efforts” in contacting
lawmakers and advocating for AB 1208’s passage.

The alliance
directors, in a mass email, acknowledged the presiding judges’ letter, but
pointed our that “they did not purport to speak for their courts.”

Those who signed
the letter, the alliance noted, comprise less than three percent of the state’s
trial court judges, “and even if they spoke for every member of their
courts—which they do not—they would not represent half of the state’s judges.”

“We remain
convinced that AB 1208 is strongly favored by judges, whether those judges
publicly voice their support or not,” the directors said.